Berkeley Ironworks Identity

Our latest assignment from Touchstone Climbing was to redesign the identity for Berkeley Ironworks, the East Bay indoor climbing gym that opened in 2000. The gear is a reference to ironworks, of course—the gym’s original logo featured three gears—and the yin and yang design alludes to Berkeley’s reputation for alternative or non-conformist thinking.

The symbol was carefully inked to determine the relationships between the positive and negative forms; line weights were optically adjusted to ensure that the individual elements contributed to a balanced and harmonious whole.